Monday, August 11, 2025

08/11 Links Pt2: Europe Is Losing a War Against Reality; Hamas Is Winning the Culture War; Israel kills a terrorist and the British media goes into mourning

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Europe Is Losing a War Against Reality
The hostages who would have been released during that cease-fire may not survive to the next, and Macron (and to some extent other European leaders, including Starmer) may have abetted their murder. So why did he do it? Reports the Times:

“Mr. Macron told [German Chancellor Friedrich] Merz that he was under immense pressure at home and would most likely recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations in late September.… The next day, without telling the Germans, Mr. Macron announced his decision publicly.”

Behind the scenes, Merz was playing a delicate role. He has far more affection for the Jewish state and the wider Jewish world than either Macron or Starmer or nearly any other Western leader save Donald Trump. Alone among the three, Merz has a genuine desire to see the state of Israel survive. But he is also quite critical of Israeli policy of late and suspended some weapons sales after Israel’s announcement that it would pursue Hamas into Gaza City.

Macron acted out of panic and fear. He is not the only world leader under pressure to throw Israel under the bus, but he is a uniquely weak-willed one.

Merz, too, wants to see the establishment of a Palestinian state. But he is of sound mind, and he wanted to approach such a radical change with tact and caution and a sense of the long-term implications. When Starmer went public with his intent to follow Macron on a Palestinian state, the Times reports, Merz was less than pleased:

“Mr. Starmer’s announcement surprised the Germans. They already viewed Mr. Macron’s announcement as counterproductive, hardening Israel’s tone and Hamas’s stance in cease-fire negotiations in Qatar, which had collapsed.”

Events had taken place exactly as Marco Rubio said they did. The one thing everyone can agree on is that Macron did great damage to cease-fire efforts.

Thus we have a rare moment when the truth has emerged from the shadows: France’s announcement of its recognition of a Palestinian state sabotaged peace, prolonged the war, and may have signed the death warrants of Israeli hostages in Gaza. It is a moment that should be taught in international relations courses for decades to come; a cautionary tale.

The Times piece also contains an unintentionally revealing (and humorous) sentence: “Given its Nazi history and its status as one of Israel’s most important allies, Germany had always been unlikely to recognize a Palestinian state before it was established.”

Here’s another way of saying that Germany was unlikely to pretend that something existed until it existed. This sets it apart from France and Britain, and a growing list of Western countries which insist on going to war against reality.
Hamas Is Winning the Culture War
Go visit a public park in Birmingham or London or attempt to buy lunch in downtown Athens or Malmö, and it’s obvious that Europe is dying—its native populations, folkways, religions, and languages being replaced by people whose relationship with their host countries is marked most loudly by resentment, mixed with contempt. Terrified European elites, presiding over shrinking populations and dwindling resources, know no other way but to submit, while justifying their submission through ever-more elaborate rituals of pretense and denial.

Israel has no such privilege. To survive, it has just one path forward. First, it must realize that as land and humiliation are the only two viable currencies in the Middle East, it must reoccupy Gaza, reviving President Trump’s proposal to relocate the strip’s inhabitants to Egypt, the Gulf states, Ireland, France, and wherever else desires to take them. Relocation of populations as the result of war is not a barbaric offense practiced only by Nazis, as opponents shout; it is the common outcome of nearly every war in history. If shipping Gazans out of Gaza as a consequence of their defeat is somehow Nazi-like, then the list of Nazi states on the planet is long indeed: China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Austria, and France, for starters. The United States sent hundreds of thousands of Loyalists fleeing to Canada in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, and not a single one has yet received compensation for their losses. That’s war.

Second, Israel must reject any notion of a future settlement that is absent a complete and total Palestinian surrender, not just in Gaza but in the West Bank as well. A Palestinian state is not the answer to the problems of either Jews or Arabs. It is a way for the world to guarantee a violent and bloody future for everyone in the region, by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat for Hamas. History has been very clear in its verdict that there is room at best for one state between the river and the sea, as the Palestinians and their Western partisans like to put it. Any sane person deciding between the existence of the State of Israel, a technologically advanced liberal democracy as well as the region’s leading military power, and the various Palestinian principalities that owe their existence to outside charity, should have an easy time deciding which state that should be. If your answer is Palestine, then you are either an Islamist or a nihilist. Either way, your values are not mine—especially given the scale of the murdering that your answer supposes, and the human desert that you propose to build on the resulting pile of bones.

Third, Israel must resist the enormous pressure that will result from European capitals, because the pressure is precisely the point. Britain is already facing a bubbling revolt of citizens enraged by decades-long concealment of Pakistani grooming gangs raping hundreds of defenseless young women, as well as by an even more insidious effort to arrest and silence people who point out the obvious on social media. The more vocal and violent the anti-Israel revolt in Europe grows, the more likely it is to force the continent’s feckless leadership into a reckoning that their policy of welcoming migrants is about to backfire in a very painful way.

It is the hope of European elites that by throwing Israel over the side of the ship, they might buy themselves perhaps another decade or two of relative social peace, during which they can believe whatever they want about human nature while eating gobs of Nutella. I believe these comforting assumptions about the efficacy of sacrificing the Jews will be a mistake for them. Either way, Israel can’t be part of it. Dying for Europe’s delusions of how it might buy peace with its own barbarians was the unavoidable fate of European Jews during World War II, an experience that made the necessity of a Jewish state clear to every sentient Jew and sympathetic or guilt-driven Western person on the planet. I am sad to say that our own century’s barbarians show no signs of being any friendlier to Jews than their European predecessors were.

Thankfully, having a state means that Jews are no longer compelled to sacrifice ourselves for the convenience of Europeans or the global left or deluded right-wing American podcasters or The New York Times or anyone else. Every other consequence of our national existence, however brutal or bloody, is painfully small by comparison.
Mike Huckabee, Yehuda Kaploun and Mark Walker: Silence is complicity
Peace cannot coexist with terrorism. So long as Hamas holds power, Gaza’s people will remain imprisoned by violence. Every moment they remain in control is another moment justice and stability are denied to Gazan and Israeli civilians.

In stark contrast to the silence and moral ambiguity of many global leaders, figures like President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio have shown bold clarity. They stand firm in rejecting Hamas’s legitimacy, demand the immediate release of all hostages, alive and dead, and refuse to soften their stance in the face of terror. Their leadership exemplifies what the moment demands: moral clarity and unwavering resolve.

Too many world leaders, obsessed with political calculation, have failed to act. This silence is not neutrality, it’s complicity.

This moment requires more than just political will. We call on religious leaders of all faiths—Pope Leo XIV, Muslim leaders, evangelical pastors, Jewish figures and others—to come together in shared outrage and shared purpose. The hostages are not political pawns; they are human beings whose lives hang in the balance.

Humanitarian organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent must be empowered to deliver aid, food, medicine and other essentials to those suffering in captivity. This is not a regional issue; it’s a human-rights crisis that demands a global response. Neutrality in the face of evil is not virtue; it is surrender.

Have we become so desensitized that images of tortured civilians and terrorized families no longer move us to action? The world’s silence is deafening. We must ask ourselves: If not now, when? If not us, who?

We are standing at a moral crossroads. To ignore what is happening in Gaza, to look away from the true nature of Hamas, is to forsake our shared humanity. The real truths are not buried in policy papers or press releases; they live in the faces of the victims, in the voices of grieving families and in the hollow eyes of hostages still waiting for rescue.

Every day we delay, every moment of hesitation allows more suffering. The cost of inaction is measured in lives lost, dignity denied and a future destroyed. We must stand united, not as political factions, but as human beings. Against Hamas and for the innocent.

The real truth is this: We must not allow Hamas lies to become truths.


Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas's Plan to Undermine America's Arab Allies
Hamas is now trying to incite Arabs to revolt against their own governments under the pretext that the Arab leaders have failed to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Apparently, the Arab leaders understand the dangers of allowing Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization, to drag their countries into war with Israel.

That is why many Arab countries have banned or outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and recently, Jordan. These countries view the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to national security and political stability.

If the Trump administration wants to promote peace and stability in the Middle East and protect its Arab allies, it must follow suit and designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

"Al-Hayya's statement is part of a systematic campaign orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide with the aim of discrediting Egypt's role and disrupting its political and humanitarian efforts to stop the war and alleviate the suffering of [Palestinian] civilians." — Former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister Hussein Haridi, Sky News Arabia, July 28, 2025.

The Hamas leader's goals are "completely in line with the main objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood: toppling the Egyptian regime and turning Egypt into a quagmire of chaos.... The Muslim Brotherhood believes that the current economic situation in Egypt could be an opportunity to pressure the Egyptian people by mixing religious sentiments with economic conditions, thereby destabilizing the country's domestic situation." — Saeed Okasha, Egyptian expert at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, almashhad.com, July 28, 2025.

Hamas leaders, who claim they were betrayed by their Arab brothers, now seek to export their group's own crisis and place the responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinians on other parties, especially the Arab countries.

They are doing so from their safe villas and luxury hotel suites in Qatar, one of the leading sponsors of Islamist groups, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.

Were it not for Qatar's backing, Hamas leaders would not have had the courage to incite unrest and instability in Egypt and Jordan. It is time for the Trump administration not only to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization, but also finally to call out Qatar and its Al-Jazeera TV network for promoting Islamist terror groups that target Israel and America's Arab allies.
The West Should Stand with Israel -
Since the Islamist terrorists of Hamas started the war with the antisemitic pogrom of Oct. 7, from the start, many turned the truth and moral judgement on its head to accuse Israel of committing genocide by waging war against the genuinely genocidal death cult of Hamas. Everything is now twisted to cast Israel in the role of bloodthirsty aggressor. Every lie broadcast by Hamas (aka "the Gaza health ministry") is repeated. Supposedly serious commentators repeat blatant blood libels about Israel deliberately shooting Palestinians queuing for food and "using starvation as a weapon of war."

There is plenty of evidence to show that, in fact, Israel has done more than any army in history to limit civilian casualties, that Israel is probably the first nation at war to try to feed rather than starve its enemies, and that Hamas is ultimately to blame for all the suffering in Gaza. Indeed, unlike the Israelis, the Islamists really do have a policy of deliberately causing - and celebrating - the death of Palestinian civilians.

Those who started the war with the slaughter of families and festival goers are being rewarded for it by supposed leaders of Western civilization. Thus Macron, Starmer and the rest are giving Hamas a prize for launching a pogrom, a reward for mass rapes, a bouquet for butchering Jews. Little wonder that Hamas announced soon afterwards that it has no interest in discussing any peace deal until Israel surrenders.

The European elites have convinced themselves that they are on "the right side of history" by aiding Hamas in its jihad to reduce the number of Jewish states to nil. Whatever Western leaders might imagine, Islamists are not interested in any dream of a peaceful "two-state solution." Hamas demands one state, an Islamic caliphate "from the river to the sea." That means wiping the Israeli state off the map.

To the elites who despise our own Western civilization, history and democracy, Israel is their hate figure because it dares to stand up and fight for its national sovereignty and people, and defend to the end the principles that the West has abandoned. We should make clear that, in the real world, we stand foursquare with the Israelis, not only in their demand for the return of the remaining hostages, but in their determination to do what is necessary to defeat Hamas.
Family of Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi arrives in Israel to seek son’s return
The mother and sister of hostage Bipin Joshi, a Nepali agricultural volunteer taken captive from Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, landed in Israel on Monday for their first visit since their loved one’s abduction.

Reporters surrounded the pair after they exited customs at Ben Gurion Airport, seeking a first comment from them.

“Please, rescue my son,” said Joshi’s mother, Padma Joshi, as she broke down in tears. “Hamas, bring [him] back home now. Please, return [him] home, Hamas. Please. Please.”

Joshi’s sister, Pushpa, 17, thanked the Israeli people for their support and the government officials who flew the family in.

She said that her brother came to Israel to study as part of his academic program and was caught in a war that has nothing to do with him.

“We just want him back,” she said. “It’s too much for me and my family. It’s been almost two years. We can’t help but think about his condition — what he is doing there, whether he is getting food, whether he is getting medicine.”

Waiting at the airport for the family were four friends of Bipin, who studied with him in university in Nepal, came with him to Israel in September 2023, and were wounded during the Hamas-led attack on October, but managed to evade captivity.

The president of the Israeli college where Bipin studied agriculture also came to welcome his loved ones.
Seth Frantzman: Behind the journey: Why did Congressman Hamadeh travel from Jerusalem to Damascus?
US Rep. Abraham J. Hamadeh made an important trip to the Middle East this week that included what his office called an “unprecedented trip from Jerusalem to Damascus.”

The Republican from Arizona met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani during the trip to Syria.

This is significant because Syria is currently continuing its transition from the rule of the Assad regime, which fell in December 2024, to a new government that has promised to unify the country. However, tensions between groups have led to infighting among the Druze, Bedouins, and others. Hamadeh’s trip to the region illustrates US engagement with Israel, Syria, and key officials in both countries.

According to a statement from Hamadeh’s office, he travelled to Syria to “discuss the congressman’s continuing efforts to bring Americans home, advance ‘Peace Through Strength,’ and advocate for a Syria that looks toward the future and not the past.”

However, the larger symbolic importance of this visit is that it was a historic trip by a US official from Jerusalem to Damascus. His office says it is the first time in decades that this has happened. It harkens back to the era of US “shuttle” diplomacy, when American foreign policy heavyweights, such as Henry Kissinger, would travel around the region.
Norway investment fund divests from 11 Israeli companies
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, which reportedly invests about $2 trillion, divested in recent days from 11 Israeli companies it says do not meet its “equity benchmark.” More than that, it plans to move the other 50 companies in which it invests in-house, Norges Bank Investment Management announced on Monday.

“We are terminating contracts with external managers in Israel,” it said.

Fund managers have divested from Israeli companies before, citing what they say were “particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms” and “serious violations of individuals’ rights in situations of war or conflict,” among other issues. It also excludes those who produce tobacco or nuclear weapons.

The 11 Israeli companies that the fund cut off are guilty of “serious norm violations associated with business operations in the West Bank,” it said. (JNS sought comment from the central bank but did not hear back.)

“These measures were taken in response to extraordinary circumstances,” stated Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management. “We are invested in companies that operate in a country at war, and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have recently worsened. In response, we will further strengthen our due diligence.”
Stephen Pollard: Israel kills a terrorist and the British media goes into mourning
The response to the killing of al-Sharif is a case study in how badly the mainstream media has failed in its coverage of the Gaza war.

Take John Simpson, the doyen of BBC correspondents and its world affairs editor, who posted that he was “deeply shocked by Israel’s deliberate killing of the Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif…”. Not a mention of the evidence of al-Sharif’s Hamas activities. Even if Simpson doesn’t believe the evidence supplied by the IDF, he should surely at least mention it, if only to dismiss it.

His BBC colleague, international editor Jeremy Bowen, referring to “Anas” – they were, it seems, on first name terms - did at least do that, albeit witheringly dismissing the evidence of al-Sharif’s role as a Hamas terrorist as “not convincing”. For Bowen, one does wonder on what basis the IDF version has been so airily dismissed, while taking at face value the words of Al Jazeera - which, of course, denied that it employed a Hamas terrorist to further its broader remit of pushing Hamas propaganda onto the world.

The BBC was far from alone – Sky and ITV all took at face value Al Jazeera’s line that al-Sharif was some sort of heroic seeker after truth, a journalist of whom all his colleagues should be proud.

The same al-Sharif, that is, who has been widely reported as having posted this at 15.39 on October 7 2023: “9 hours and the heroes are still roaming the country killing and capturing…Great God, how great you are” followed by three hearts.

The same al-Sharif who, according to dissidents in Gaza, handed over opponents of Hamas to the terror group after filming them.

And the same al-Sharif who posted proudly that he had named “my son Salah…in honour of my lifelong friend Salah Labad, who was martyred at the beginning of this war. My father instructed me to name my son after him, out of love for him and in recognition of this kind and virtuous Salah.” The “kind and virtuous” Salah Labad was “martyred” as one of the terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre.

As the IDF put it yesterday: “Al-Sharif was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops. Intelligence and documents from Gaza, including rosters, terrorist training lists and salary records, prove he was a Hamas operative integrated into Al Jazeera. A press badge isn’t a shield for terrorism.”
Andrew Fox: When does a journalist become a legitimate military target? Maybe not often enough.
Al Jazeera is not a neutral observer. It is the flagship media arm of Qatar, a state that funds Hamas directly through hundreds of millions in cash infusions into Gaza. Qatar provides political sanctuary, hosting Hamas leadership openly in Doha, and runs strategic information campaigns amplifying Hamas narratives and suppressing their atrocities. This is not independent journalism. It is state-directed strategic communication, explicitly designed to influence the conduct of hostilities.

Oh boy, has it worked. Hamas’s dominance of the information battlespace has been on a par with any battlefield victory the IDF has won in Gaza. The role of Al Jazeera’s coverage has been decisive. They have had a critical role in bringing international pressure by saturating global audiences with emotive, selective imagery. This has mobilised street protests, driven foreign policy debates, and generated calls for ceasefires.

This pressure has materially constrained Israel’s freedom of manoeuvre, forcing the IDF to alter targeting timelines, suspend operations, and accept increased risk to its own troops. Therefore, by shaping global perception, Al Jazeera has increased the political cost of decisive action by the IDF, giving Hamas operational breathing space and prolonging the conflict. If that is not “direct participation in hostilities” under LOAC, then nothing is.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sets out three criteria for direct participation in hostilities:

In order to qualify as direct participation in hostilities, a specific act must meet the following cumulative criteria:
1. the act must be likely to adversely affect the military operations or military capacity of a party to an armed conflict or, alternatively, to inflict death, injury, or destruction on persons or objects protected against direct attack (threshold of harm), and
2. there must be a direct causal link between the act and the harm likely to result either from that act, or from a coordinated military operation of which that act constitutes an integral part (direct causation), and
3. the act must be specifically designed to directly cause the required threshold of harm in support of a party to the conflict and to the detriment of another (belligerent nexus).

Al Jazeera’s conduct fulfils all three criteria. The harm threshold is satisfied because their broadcasts have directly compromised IDF operations. A clear causal link exists between narrative shaping and operational constraints. This is well-documented and observable. Additionally, there is a belligerent nexus as their editorial stance explicitly aligns with Hamas’s strategic objectives and Qatar’s geopolitical interests.


IDF says it has killed Hamas 'terror' cell leader posing as 'Al Jazeera' journalist
The Israel Defense Forces killed Anas al-Sharif, who Israel says posed as a journalist for the Qatari Al Jazeera network but was actively serving as the head of a Hamas terrorist cell.

Al-Sharif, who was slain in Gaza City on Saturday, was responsible for orchestrating and advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops, the Israeli military said.

The IDF previously released intelligence and recovered many documents in Gaza that it says shows al-Sharif’s “military” role within Hamas. These materials include personnel rosters, records of terrorist training courses, phone directories and salary documents, all substantiating his alleged involvement as a combatant and commander in Hamas.

The evidence also highlighted al-Sharif’s integration within Al Jazeera, despite the media network’s efforts to distance itself from his activities.

The documents detail al-Sharif’s alleged position as a fighter and cell leader since 2013, including his leadership in rocket units and participation in elite Nukhba battalions. These records not only suggest clear affiliation with terrorist operations but also outline attempts to use journalistic credentials as a cover for operational activity.

“A terrorist with a camera is still a terrorist! I commend our security forces for eliminating the terrorist Anas Jamal Mahmoud Al-Sharif, who operated under the guise of an Al Jazeera journalist,” Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon wrote in an X post on Sunday.
'Allahu Akbar and Thank God': Meet the Al Jazeera 'Journalist' the Mainstream Media Are Mourning
None of those messages or photos were mentioned in CBS News, New York Times, Washington Post, and Time reports that vilified Israel for targeting a "journalist."

The Post piece, headlined, "Palestinians mourn Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, crew in Gaza," said the strike on Al-Sharif "underscored the perils faced by Palestinian journalists in Gaza, where they have reported through hunger, displacement, fierce bombardment and the loss of family members." It was written by London correspondent Louisa Loveluck, an Al Jazeera veteran who was part of the Post team named as a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist for international reporting on Gaza. Loveluck recently penned a piece that accused Israel of killing scores of Gazans near a humanitarian aid site without making clear that the claim came from Hamas. The Post later acknowledged that the piece did not meet its standards.

Hamas maintains a tight grip on Gazan "journalists" operating in the strip, including those affiliated with Al Jazeera. Israel banned Al Jazeera from operating within its borders last year, accusing it of "broadcasting propaganda in the service of Hamas, in Arabic and English, to viewers around the world."

The overlap between Al Jazeera and Hamas has been well documented. Al Jazeera reporter Tamer Almisshal, for example, reportedly produced elaborate Hamas propaganda ceremonies in which the terrorist outfit paraded Israeli hostages through the Gazan streets as onlookers celebrated. A Hamas operative who held hostages in his home, Abdallah Aljamal, also moonlit as a "journalist" for a little-known U.S. publication called the Palestine Chronicle. The publication's founder and editor in chief, Ramzy Baroud, formerly served as an Al Jazeera editor and executive.

Over the decades, Al Jazeera has published a number of false reports accusing Israel of atrocities. A 2013 story charged Israel with opening dams to intentionally flood Gaza. Al Jazeera retracted that reporting two years later, issuing an embarrassing editor's note that acknowledged there "are no dams of the type which can be opened." Years later, Al Jazeera corrected a report that referred to the Israeli coastal city of Haifa as "northern occupied Palestine."

Al-Sharif was not the only Al Jazeera "journalist" mentioned in the declassified Israeli documents that revealed Al-Sharif's Hamas affiliation. Also referenced were Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Al-Saraj, Ismail Abu Omar, and Talal Aruki, all of whom are affiliated with either Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to the documents.

Shabat, who moonlit as a sniper in Hamas's Beit Hanoun Battalion, according to the documents, was also killed in a targeted Israeli strike in March. Prior to his death, he contributed to Drop Site News, an anti-Israel site founded by U.S. journalist Ryan Grim, formerly of HuffPost and the Intercept. Grim eulogized Al-Sharif in a Sunday post on X, calling him "one of the greatest journalists of all time."


Censored tweet
Anas Al-Sharif’s account on the 7th of October:
“Whenever that you feel that the morale is not good, remember that we hit them on the head in the middle of their military sites”




Former Gaza hostage slams Al Jazeera, MK Ayman Odeh over 'terrorist sympathies'
Former hostage Shlomi Ziv slammed Al Jazeera’s condemnation of the killing of Anas Al-Sharif, a Hamas terrorist posing as a journalist, in a post on X/Twitter on Monday.

“I was held by a journalist in captivity and his father was a Doctor!!!!!!!!” Ziv’s post read.

Ziv also lashed out at MK Ayman Odeh after the minister posted on X to grieve Al-Sharif. “Everyone is a Hamas operative, there are no journalists there who aren't Hamas because they would kill him for telling the truth.”

“I will act with all my strength to throw you out of the Knesset, my word, I promise you, you terror supporter,” the post ended.


UKLFI: ActionAid removes false claim that more killed in Gaza that any other recent conflict
The charity ActionAid has amended its website after making false claims that “More women and children have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza than any other conflict in the last two decades.”

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) researched the comparative numbers killed, and found that conflicts in Ethiopia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen had all resulted in far higher fatalities of women and children in the past 20 years than the current Israel-Gaza conflict.

Even relying on Hamas’s discredited total fatality figures, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy report dated May 2025[1] estimates that 25,300 women and children have died in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

Unfortunately there have been many other recent conflicts in the world, which have not received as much publicity as the one in Gaza, but which have resulted in many more fatalities of women and children.

Approximately 33,000 women were killed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region between 2020 and 2022[2]
In Sudan 522,000 children are estimated to have died from famine as a result of the war[3]
199,068 civilians perished in Syria since 2011 as a direct consequence of its civil war, of whom 42,463 were women and children[4]
In Yemen, conservative estimates show 85,000 children died from starvation between 2015 and 2018[5], whilst UN data suggests a total of 259,000 children died between 2014 and 2021, due to war[6]

UKLFI had been alerted to the misinformation by a supporter of ActionAid, who was extremely upset to have been sent misinformation. She said: “I was horrified to see it as I’ve had a monthly direct debit supporting their work for roughly 20 years (which I have now cancelled).”

UKLFI wrote to ActionAid pointing out that their statement that “More women and children have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza than any other conflict in the last two decades” was wrong, and why.
Inside the DSA Convention, Where Socialists Declared Dominance Over Dems and Set Their Sights on 2028
The Democratic Socialists of America sent a clear message to Democrats during its biennial convention: We're in charge now. Zohran Mamdani's surprise win wasn't an anomaly, delegates said, but rather the start of the DSA's rise to power over the Democratic Party.

Roughly 1,200 DSA members gathered over the weekend at McCormick Place, Chicago's convention center, to solidify the party's platform. Tickets for the three-day convention, attended by the Washington Free Beacon, cost $225 and required party membership. Attendees were also required to submit proof of a negative COVID test prior to arrival. A convention live-stream was exclusive to registered DSA members. In-person attendees, primarily delegates elected by their local DSA chapters and a few observers, were requested to keep the convention center's location confidential. Only delegates could deliver two-minute speeches supporting or opposing resolutions, which required a two-thirds majority to pass. Most speakers identified themselves only by their first name, last initial, and home chapter.

Delegates celebrated Mamdani's win. More importantly, they said he served as a template for future candidates.

"We need to run campaigns that win. Campaigns like Zohran Mamdani, which put forward a bold vision of a socialist society," Nate K., a delegate from Atlanta, said during a speech Saturday morning debating a resolution on whether to put forth a socialist candidate in 2028. "Zohran shows that Palestine is a winning issue. That socialism is a winning issue."

"The time for protest campaigns and messaging is over. The time for winning is now," he continued. "We can win the Democratic primary in 2028. There's polls now that show that a majority of the Democratic primary electorate supports Palestine and would want a Democratic socialist to win the presidential primary in 2028."

Another delegate, Jesse B. from central Indiana, suggested during a speech on the same motion that the DSA has the opportunity to seize power with the Democratic Party's favorability ratings in the tank.

"The Democratic Party is dying. They have less support than the Republican Party," he said.

Indeed, the Democratic establishment has slowly but surely begun recognizing and praising Mamdani. While some top Democrats were reportedly gripped by "absolute panic and fear" following his victory, Mamdani earned an endorsement from Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, praise from Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, and a meeting with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries.

DSA delegates passed a number of resolutions to amend the party's platform while periodically waving Communist Party flags. It was the DSA's first convention since Oct. 7—the party addressed Hamas's terrorist massacre by adopting an anti-Israel resolution between "Free Palestine" and "Death to the IDF" chants.


Jerusalem resident arrested on suspicion of spraying Holocaust graffiti at the Western Wall
A 27-year old Jerusalem resident was arrested Monday morning after graffiti reading ‘There is a Holocaust in Gaza’ was spray painted in red across a southern section of stones at the Western Wall.

In addition to defacing Judaism’s second holiest site (after the Temple Mount), in the egalitarian area opposite the “Ezrat Yisrael” section, the suspect is also accused of tagging the outer walls of the city’s Great Synagogue with similar graffiti.

Israeli police say the Jewish man is now in custody pending a court hearing.

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said: “A holy place is not a place to express protests of any kind, and sevenfold when this is done at the holiest place for the entire Jewish people.”

He condemned the act at the Kotel as “a serious desecration”.


Israel, US oppose automatic UNIFIL renewal, citing failure to prevent Hezbollah infiltration
Ahead of the UN Security Council discussion on extending the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) taking place later this month, Israel and the United States have informed Council members that they oppose an automatic renewal of the mandate and are demanding a reassessment of the force’s necessity.

A diplomat familiar with the talks told The Jerusalem Post that this comes “in light of its prolonged failure to prevent Hezbollah’s infiltration into southern Lebanon, and to enforce the Lebanese government’s sovereignty in the area.”

Israel and the US are working with other Security Council members to persuade them not to support the mandate’s extension, or, at the very least, to demand substantial changes to it.

The goal is to ensure that the automatic renewal policy is replaced with a substantive debate over UNIFIL’s performance and a potential new path forward.

The Israeli and American position is based on the fact that UNIFIL, which was established nearly five decades ago as a temporary force, has failed to achieve its core objectives. Instead of acting as a buffer and preventing Hezbollah’s militarization south of the Litani River, the force has become a passive actor, refraining from exercising its authority and submitting partial reports to the Security Council that do not reflect the reality on the ground.

Since being tasked with preventing Hezbollah’s rearmament during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, UNIFIL has done nothing to confront the organization over its weapons.


Iran Threatens Netanyahu and Other Israeli Politicians, Military Officials With Assassination
Despite agreeing to a U.S.-backed ceasefire in late June, the Iranian regime has published a list of senior Israeli politicians and military officials marked for assassination. The Iranian hit list includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and the top generals of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“Iran published on Monday an assassination list targeting senior Israeli political and security officials,” the Israel Hayom newspaper reported.

Israel won’t sit idly by if Tehran tries to target its elected leaders and military officials, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned. “I suggest that Iranian dictator Khamenei, when he comes out of his bunker, look up at the sky and listen carefully to every buzzing sound,” Katz wrote in Hebrew on X, referring to Israel’s domination of Iranian airspace during the recently concluded 12-day war.

In his warning, the defense minister also referred to the Operation “Red Wedding,” which led to the elimination of Iran’s top military command in the early phase of Israeli aerial strikes in mid-June.

“In his tweet, Katz tells Khamenei that “participants of the ‘Red Wedding’ are waiting for him,” referencing a large-scale Israeli surprise attack in the opening hours of the war on June 13, in which some 30 senior military commanders, including the three most senior generals, were killed in near-simultaneous strikes in the Iranian capital, crippling Iran’s command and control and delaying its response for nearly 24 hours.” The Times of Israel reported.

It is worth noting that while the Iranian regime openly publicizes its intention to murder Israel’s political and military leadership, Jerusalem was reportedly restrained by the U.S. from eliminating Iran’s dictator, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the 12-day war fought between June 13-14, 2024.

“President Trump opposed a recent Israeli plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,” CBS News reported June 16. “The Israelis had the opportunity to assassinate Khamenei and Mr. Trump conveyed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it wasn’t a good idea,” the broadcaster reported, quoting U.S. officials.


‘Getting worse and worse,’ Israeli-American Council says after headquarters vandalized with swastikas
When JNS visited the national headquarters of the Israeli-American Council in the leafy Los Angeles neighborhood of Woodland Hills on Monday morning, the area around the modernist building had already been cleaned up, after an antisemitic vandal spray painted swastikas, “burn” and Nazi “SS” bolts on Sunday morning.

A security guard checked JNS into the parking lot. But even with tight security, “some employees didn’t come to work today, because they don’t feel safe,” Tamar Nissim, Los Angeles regional director for the nonprofit, told JNS. Frightened community members are “thinking of moving out,” she added.

“We are very appalled by this vile, antisemitic act,” Nissim told JNS. “It’s getting worse and worse, and we really think that there’s something more deep that we need to address here.”

The Israeli-American Council, which is celebrating its 18th year, aims to “build an engaged and united Israeli-American community that strengthens the Israeli and Jewish identity of our next generation, the American Jewish community and the bond between the peoples of the United States and the State of Israel,” per its website.

Nissim told JNS that the antisemitic vandalism was “all over the neighborhood” and was “overwhelming in a very negative way, because it was on the poles, the electricity poles, the curbs, the road and the bridge. Everywhere.”

An expletive directed at Jews and a reference to the movement to boycott Israel were spray-painted on a barrier near the nonprofit.


Apple Books selling reviled antisemitic conspiracy text for 49p
Apple Books is selling The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic conspiracy text, for just 49p on its UK site, it has emerged.

The document was written by Russian author and self-proclaimed Orthodox Christian mystic Sergei Nilus in 1905 as the final chapter of the second edition of his 1903 book The Great within the Small and Antichrist, which predicted the imminent coming of the Antichrist, the so-called “false Christ” of the Christian gospels.

It is regarded by many historians as responsible for popularising a number of prominent antisemitic conspiracy theories, including that of global Jewish domination and control of the media, and has long since been found to be a fabrication.

But it remains available to buy for just 49p on Apple’s e-book service, bearing a blurb from its publisher urging customers to “read and decide by yourself” whether the boon is “truth or hoax”.

"When the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion were first discovered, Freemasons and Zionist Jews everywhere screamed and complained that these 24 Protocols are a hoax, a forgery, even a blood taint against the Jews,” it added.

"But then came the brutal and barbaric Communist Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and its captive republics, led by covert Masonic Jews [Vladimir] Lenin, [Leon] Trotsky, [Lazar] Kaganovich, and others.

"The cruel and sinister crimes of the crypto-Jew revolutionaries seemed to have jumped off the pages of the Protocols.

"The Red Terror, with its torturous massacres of innocent people, its monstrous gulag concentration camps, and the setting up of a Jewish dictatorship, also followed the agenda of the Protocols as did the persecution everywhere of Christians and churches.”

While both Trotsky and Kaganovich were of Jewish heritage, there is no evidence either were members of the Freemasons and all Masonic lodges in Russia were closed following the Bolshevik Revolution. Lenin’s mother was born a patrilineal Jew but converted to Christianity before marrying his father.
Neo-Nazi leader sentenced to 20 years in prison for planned attack on Maryland power grid
Brandon Clint Russell, 30, of Orlando, Fla., was sentenced to 20 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for attempting to damage or destroy Maryland’s power grid to further his white-supremacist agenda, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Aug. 7.

“The sentence imposed today reflects the gravity of Russell’s egregious conduct and his ongoing threat to public safety,” stated Kelly Hayes, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland. “This conviction underscores our unwavering commitment to dismantling violent extremist threats and holding accountable anyone who dares to conspire to endanger the lives of others.”

Russell, who founded and led the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was found guilty in February of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, according to the Justice Department.

From November 2022 to Feb. 3, 2023, Russell conspired to attack and destroy critical infrastructure, specifically transformers within electrical substations. To carry out his plan in Baltimore, he recruited a woman identified by the department as Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 37, of Catonsville, Md.

The two aimed to destroy five gas and electric substations “to cause a significant interruption and impairment of the Baltimore regional power grid,” which would have caused roughly $75 million in damage, according to the department.

Baltimore District Court Judge James Bredar stated that Russel was “the brains” behind the operation and that Russel attempted to create a “bizarre utopia,” where “everyone looked like him,” according to CBS News.

Russell received the maximum sentence. Clendaniel was previously sentenced to 18 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for her role in the scheme.
Glenn Greenwald Worships Feet of Barely Legal 'Nazi Twink'
Glenn Greenwald, the disgraced anti-Israel journalist who recently starred in an amateur film involving foot-play and the rarely discussed "pay pig" fetish, has worshipped the feet (figuratively speaking, as far as we know) of an obscure anti-Semitic influencer sometimes referred to as the "Nazi twink."

Last week, Greenwald lavished praise on Nick Fuentes, the giggling incel who adores Adolf Hitler almost as much as he hates "perfidious Jews." Allegedly 26 years old but resembling a small child deprived of love and attention, Fuentes has acquired a modest following of internet-addicted losers who also hate Jews and enjoy contemplating his "provocative" opinions such as "October 7 was staged" and "having sex with women is gay."

Greenwald fawned over the Nazi twink, describing Fuentes as "one of the most influential and formidable figures in conservative discourse." Experts told the Washington Free Beacon that Greenwald's outlandish adoration was the rhetorical equivalent of heel sucking, piggy fondling, or "paw yiffing." The journalist, who has yet to face justice for his enabling role in the crimes of Edward Snowden, insinuated that Fuentes was being unfairly censored by nefarious Jews, whom he also blamed for the "unauthorized" release of his sex tape.

"People are going to have to accept" Fuentes's alleged popularity, Greenwald said. "People can deny [his influence], I'm sure there are many people wanting to, but that's just the reality." Fuentes is apparently in the midst of a public feud with Tucker Carlson, the Nazi-adjacent podcast host who was also recently praised by Greenwald for his efforts to correct misconceptions about Hitler's noble intentions during the Second World War. Carlson, who recently described Fuentes as "this weird little gay kid in his basement," has suggested the Nazi twink is an undercover intelligence operative working to tarnish the reputations of respectable anti-Semites.


From Fukushima to the moon: StemRad’s radiation vest prepares for deep space mission
In about six months, Israeli-American startup StemRad might see its flagship innovation, a space radiation protection vest, launched into deep space aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission. For CEO Dr. Oren Milstein, it could be the culmination of a journey that began not in a lab, but in the wake of disaster.

StemRad was founded in 2011, just months after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan. “I felt that I could not, not do this,” Milstein told Defense & Tech from Florida. “Suddenly this nightmare came back where I saw first responders going inside with no gamma radiation protection. But if they don’t go in, they can’t prevent a meltdown that could turn into a national or even international disaster. That was my call to action.”

Milstein, who was on track for a career in academia after doing a PhD in immunology, pivoted during his post-doctoral studies. His advisor had treated Chernobyl first responders and understood the devastating effects of gamma radiation on bone marrow, a vulnerability that hazmat suits couldn’t address.

“The world has spent decades trying to develop full-body suits that are light enough to wear and still effective. But that’s not realistic,” Milstein said. “We focused on protecting the most sensitive areas, the pelvic bone, vertebrae, and gastrointestinal system, where bone marrow is concentrated.”

StemRad’s vest doesn’t aim for full-body coverage. Instead, it delivers targeted protection to organs most vulnerable to radiation damage. Weighing between 12–15 kilograms, it can be worn under standard hazmat suits and is designed to prevent acute radiation effects without burdening the wearer.
New book reunites letters of Holocaust survivors that show how ‘unsettling’ it is to be stateless
Goldie Morgentaler was going through her late mother Chava Rosenfarb’s belongings in 2011 when she found a package of letters in Polish. When Morgentaler opened them, she was surprised to see that they weren’t addressed to her mother. Rosenfarb had penned them to her friend and fellow Holocaust survivor, Zenia Larsson.

Rosenfarb and Larsson, both from Lodz and who both launched literary careers—the former in Canada and the latter in Sweden—corresponded across continents from December 1945 until December 1971. At some point in the early 1970s, Larsson sent back all of Rosenfarb’s letters, without explanation. Chava RosenfarbChava Rosenfarb, 1940s. Credit: Canadian Writers Abroad via Wikimedia Commons.

“It caused hurt and was painful,” Morgentaler, professor emerita of English literature at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, told JNS.

“It almost broke up the friendship, because my mother thought that this was Zenia’s way of saying that she didn’t want to be friends anymore,” Morgentaler stated, recalling what her mother said at the time. “Whereas Zenia had other ideas in mind.”

Out of a sense of obligation, Rosenfarb returned Larsson’s letters. Larsson planned to publish a book based on her own letters, which she did in 1972. She sent a copy to Rosenfarb with an inscription.

In a new book about her mother’s letters to Larsson, Morgentaler writes that Larsson’s book drew on Rosenfarb’s letters but altered details, including Rosenfarb’s physical description, and changed many names.

“Once I had the two sides of the correspondence, I thought I could put it together and it might make an interesting book,” Morgentaler told JNS, of her book Letters from the Afterlife: The Post-Holocaust Correspondence of Chava Rosenfarb and Zenia Larsson, which was published in June.

Larsson wrote novels in Swedish and Rosenfarb penned books in Yiddish, but they corresponded in Polish, their shared tongue. The letters reveal a range of emotions.

“My mother is describing her joy at being a mother and having a baby, and she’s constantly kissing me and she can’t get over what a wonder it is to have a child,” Morgentaler told JNS. “I found that very moving.”

Rosenfarb and Larsson survived Nazi ghettos and concentration camps, including Lodz, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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